The Recognition Scene
The Recognition Scene is the first song on the album Sweden. Lyrics we broke the doorknob off of the door. the door swung open easily. we sauntered into the poorly lit store, and looked around lazily. we stole every bit of candy they had inside. gobbled it all up greedily on our 3 month ride. I'm gonna miss you when you're gone. I'm gonna miss you when you're gone. you headed out to the getaway car and hit the open road I saw something written in tall clear letters on your face but I could not break the code. we had hot caramel sticking to our teeth and the only love I've ever known burning underneath I'm gonna miss you when you're gone. I'm gonna miss you when you're gone. I'm gonna miss you when you're gone. I'm gonna miss you when you're gone. Comments by John Darnielle About this Song *"This song is about that moment when — let's say you'd been assembling a model… so you've been following the directions, and as the model begins to take shape, you see that the shape, while it is a distinct and easy-to-identify shape, is not the same one that was on the box. And it's gonna eat you alive. You didn't know it was that kind of model. If you had known, you wouldn't have bought it." -- 1998-04-17 - Custer Avenue Stages - San Francisco, CA *"This is a song… that's about a point in time when everything sacred goes profane." -- 1999-01-27 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC *"This takes its title from something that happens in Greek tragedy. Uh, you know, there's a moment in a Greek tragedy where everybody on the stage realizes that they're totally fucked. Right? There's this moment where everybody thinks they've been acting independently and just deciding what they were gonna do. And then, then they all look at each other, it's, like, this great moment, where, you know, Antigone looks at Creon and Creon looks at Antigone, and both of them realize it's all going to come to no goddamn good no matter what anybody says." -- 2003-07-02 - The Guinguette Pirate - Paris, France *"This is a song about how there's a moment in every relationship where you look at the person you love and you think inside yourself: "Well, I don't actually love you anymore. What am I gonna do now? I don't want to say that, y'know, I mean what would happen if I said that?" Well, nothing would happen - right, I mean, you would just have a conversation, but you think inside yourself something disastrous will happen, so you don't say nothin'. Then it's next week, and you still feel the same way - now what are you going to do? Now you've spent a week living a terrible lie. So, well, you've already got a week invested, you might as well give it another year. That's what this song is about, it's called The Recognition Scene." -- 2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France Things Referenced in this Song Live Shows this Song Was Played at *1995-01-15 - The Chameleon - San Francisco, CA *1995-04-12 - Simplon - Groningen, The Netherlands *1995-04-22 - Fast Forward Festival - Dooroosje Club - Nijmegen, The Netherlands *1996-01-15 - Brownie's - New York City, NY *1996-01-18 - WNUR Session - Evanston, IL *1996-03-14 - Broadway Kino - Essen, Belgium *1996-03-20 - The Garage - London, England *1996-03-21 - Beachcomber - Brighton, England *1996-08-10 - Gabe's - Iowa City, IA *1996-08-30 - Knitting Factory - New York, NY *1996-09-02 - Tokyo Rose - Charlottesville, VA *1996-09-11 - Argo - Denton, TX *1996-11-07 - VPRO Radio - Amsterdam, Netherlands *1996-11-11 - Schauspielhaus - Bochum, Germany *1996-11-13 - Dreikonigkeller - Frankfurt, Germany *1996-11-22 - Slattery's - Dublin, Ireland *1997-03-01 - Replay Lounge - Lawrence, KS *1997-06-14 - Zoot's - Detroit, MI *1997-06-16 - Club Laga - Pittsburgh, PA *1997-06-17 - Brownie's - New York City, NY *1997-12-06 - The Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL *1998-02-07 - Vinyl Fever - Tallahassee, FL *1998-04-12 - Brownie's - New York City, NY *1998-04-17 - Custer Avenue Stages - San Francisco, CA *1998-07-31 - The Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL *1998-10-10 - The Rocket Bar - St. Louis, MO *1999-01-24 - Echo Lounge - Atlanta, GA *1999-01-27 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC *1999-01-30 - CD Exchange - Bloomington, IN *1999-07-23 - CBGB - New York City, NY *2000-02-06 - The Press - Claremont, CA *2000-09-17 - The Make-Out Room - San Francisco, CA *2000-10-15 - Go! Rehearsal Studios, Room 4 - Carrboro, NC *2000-10-xx - SPIN Session - CMJ Music Marathon - New York, NY *2001-02-10 - The Maintenance Shop - Ames, IA *2002-03-08 - The Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL *2002-10-10 - ICA - London, England *2002-10-23 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA *2003-02-14 - Substanz - Munich, Germany *2003-04-06 - Gate City Noise - Greensboro, NC *2003-04-09 - Will's Pub - Orlando, FL *2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France *2003-07-02 - The Guinguette Pirate - Paris, France *2005-06-19 - Neumo's - Seattle, WA *2006-12-02 - Pitzer College - Claremont, CA *2007-03-07 - The Independent - San Francisco, CA *2007-03-31 - Fritz's Corner @ Debaser - Stockholm, Sweden *2007-05-11 - Sound Fix - Brooklyn, NY *2007-09-21 - Sonar - Baltimore, MD *2007-12-08 - Union Chapel - London, England *2007-12-10 - Oran Mor - Glasgow, Scotland *2008-02-27 - WOW Hall - Eugene, OR *2008-03-19 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY *2008-11-08 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY *2009-03-21 - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue - Washington, D.C. *2009-06-13 - Zoop II - Farm Sanctuary - Watkins Glen, NY *2010-03-13 - Harvest of Hope Festival - St. Augustine, FL *2010-07-31 - Holidays for Quince Benefit - The Pinhook - Durham, NC *2010-09-10 - End of the Road Festival - Salisbury, England *2010-12-14 - Castro Theater - San Francisco, CA *2012-09-01 - Front Porch Music Festival - Livermore, CA *2013-06-05 - Maxwell's - Hoboken, NJ *2014-02-28 - Rangos Ballroom - Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA *2014-04-17 - Club Helsinki - Hudson, NY *2014-04-19 - Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago, IL *2015-11-20 - Autumn Falls Festival - Le Botanique - Brussels, Belgium *2017-04-12 - The Corner Hotel - Melbourne, Australia *2017-06-06 - Tractor Tavern - Seattle, WA *2017-06-21 - Welcome to Night Vale Birthday Party - The Bell House - New York, NY *2017-10-16 - Debaser Strand - Stockholm, Sweden * 2019-09-06 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC *2019-09-12 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA *2019-11-09 - Slaktkyrkan - Stockholm, Sweden Videos of this Song *1999-01-30 - CD Exchange - Bloomington, IN *2000-10-xx - SPIN Session - CMJ Music Marathon - New York, NY *2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France *2003-07-02 - The Guinguette Pirate - Paris, France *2006-12-02 - Pitzer College - Claremont, CA *2010-03-13 - Harvest of Hope Festival - St. Augustine, FL *2010-09-10 - End of the Road Festival - Salisbury, England *2017-10-16 - Debaser Strand - Stockholm, Sweden Category:Sweden songs Category:Video